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"52, CEDAR STREET, NEW YORK,
"24th August, 1863.
"DEAR SIR,
"If in addressing you, and expressing a sincere hope that you had a
pleasant voyage to Liverpool per the steamer 'Scotia,' I seem to take
too much liberty, I beg your pardon, as it is not my nature to be
intrusive'.
"A friend, knowing that I am interested in the fur and skin trade,
handed me, to-day, a copy of the (London) 'Economist' of 4th ulto.,
calling my attention to the article headed 'The Hudson's Bay
Company.' As you are interested in the 'International Financial
Society,' I thought it proper, even at this late date, to call your
attention to the ignorance, if not malice, displayed by the editor.
"He says: 'Civilization destroys wild animals, we all know. An eager
trade destroys them, too. The moment they become either valuable to
man, or disagreeable to man, they cease to live.' This sounds very
like Dr. Johnson, without Dr. Johnson: for any farmer, trapper,
or trader knows, that as the United States territory becomes settled,
furred animals increase, because the refuse of civilization - the
hen-roosts, the corn-fields, &c. - feed, directly and indirectly, the
smaller animals, such as musquash, minks, foxes, racoons, opossums,
skunks, and others; but the larger animals, such as buffaloes, bears,
wolves, deer, elk, and others, would suffer from civilization were it
not that they retire to the deserts, of which there will be enough for
hundreds of years. Germany (it is said) produces more red-foxes than
all America; and wolves are plentiful in France.
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